Master and apprentice – Wout van Aert to guide Matthew Brennan in Deutschland Tour sprints

Visma-Lease a Bike's Wout van Aert will work for Matthew Brennan at this week's Lidl Deutschland Tour, the Belgian Classics master helping the 20-year-old apprentice in the sprints.

The pair will aim to challenge Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) and Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) during the five-day race in Germany.

Joining Van Aert and Brennan in the Visma-Lease a Bike line-up are Tijmen Graat, Steven Kruijswijk, Niklas Behrens and Matisse Van Kerckhove, a mix of experience and youthful energy.

The five-stage race across Germany from Essen to Magdeburg starts on August 20 with a 3.1km prologue. The four road stages include two flat days and two hillier days, where both Van Aert and Brennan could still fight for victory.

Like many teams, Visma-Lease a Bike face a triple programme of racing, with Jonas Vinegaard, Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson riding the Vuelta a España, starting Saturday, while Olav Kooij leads a team at the Renewi Tour in the Netherlands and Belgium after recovering from illness, which also begins on Wednesday.

Van Aert is using the Deutschland Tour as a key part of his final racing block of the season. After recovering from his Vuelta crash injuries during the winter, Van Aert rode both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France this year, winning a stage in each. He will also race in Canada in September but then end his season relatively early at the Super 8 Classic in Belgium on September 20.

Brennan has raced less but been incredibly successful so far in 2025, winning 11 races, including the Tour of Norway overall, plus stages at the Volta a Catalunya and Tour de Pologne, and the Rund um Köln.

"Matthew and Wout will have to deliver the results together. Matthew will get his chances in the sprints, with Wout providing support," Visma-Lease a Bike directeur sportif Robert Wagner said.

"Wout will lead out the sprints and share his experience with Matthew. It’s fantastic to see a rider like Wout working in that way with a young talent like Matthew. We’ll see how things unfold in the tougher stages."

Van Aert made his return to racing at the ADAC Cyclassics in Hamburg at the weekend, finishing tenth after the sprinters failed to catch Rory Townsend (Q36.5) before the line.

It will be interesting to see how Van Aert emerges from the Tour de France and some time to recover. The likes of Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), racing his penultimate road race, and podium finisher Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) are also using Deutschland as their first post-Tour appearance.

Wagner expects the third stage of the Deutschland Tour to be decisive for the general classification.

"That looks like the real GC day. We hope to have several riders in the mix deep into the finale," he said.

"The last stage finishes in Magdeburg — my hometown. That’s really special for me. It’s great to coach this race in my home country. I’ll definitely have goosebumps riding the last local laps. It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a big cycling event in Magdeburg.”